I'm on a waitlist for a Book of Mormon class(REL A 121) of 59 people and I am 7th on the waitlist out of 12. Should I stay on the waitlist and risk other classes filling up even though this one is the ideal time and teacher? Or should I switch to a different REL A 121 class. Or just wait a bit longer to see if more people drop out of the class and the waitlist(And if so, would you suggest to wait a month or two?).

This teacher literally has a 4.5 on ratemyprofessor.com, a 92% on if people would take the class again, and a 2.8 on the difficulty. That's some of the best scores I've seen so far through all of my searches on this site. And the class is from 10-10:50 am.

-Ughhhh, i want this class

A:

Dear Uggs,

If it were me, I would wait a bit longer to see if I made it on from the waitlist. I'd say you have a fairly decent chance of making it, especially if you're willing to wait till after the first day of classes, because lots of people mess with their schedule after the first day, and space usually opens up. This isn't fail safe, but it's worked for me so far (last semester I'm pretty sure all of my classes were waitlisted, because I changed my major after registering, so I changed my whole schedule and added a bunch of other classes really late. It was stressful and chaotic, but things ended up working out for me for the most part).

If you reach the first day of class and you're still not off the waitlist, you could always try attending anyways. Lots of professors are willing to bend some rules sometimes to let students from the waitlist add the class if they're physically in class the first day. And even if that doesn't work out for you, there are so many REL A 121 classes offered at BYU that it should be fairly easy to make it into at least one of them, even if you wait a while to try adding it to your schedule.

The MyBYU waitlist system is actually lovely... if you know how to work it. Now, I graduated last year so there is the possibility this recommendation is no longer useful, but from what I understand after like the first day of class, the waitlist drops and you will no longer automatically be added to the class. Nothing revolutionary yet, I know. In any case, people will go and try to add the class—maybe they'll get in, maybe they won't—but all the while it is still possible to add the class online until the add/drop deadline. As the week goes on, a few people often drop from the class, leaving you a spot where you can just click "Add" on MyByu, all easy-peasy-like, and BOOM! You have the class of your desire.

This is a particularly effective technique for hard-to-get-into STAC (student activity, for the uninitiated) classes like Yoga and Zumba, where typically a few spots are wide open on the last day of the Add/Drop period.

I hope this makes sense. Email me (writer emails are always available on our "About Us" page) if clarification would be helpful.

Suerte,

--Ardilla Feroz, who wonders what it is like in nearby Batman, Turkey

P.S. Auto Surf says being able to do this may depend on the type of class it is, but isn't sure. Nor am I. Give it a shot, if it is your last option.

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